Part 15 (2/2)

Luys has suggested, therefore, that these interans constitute peculiar centres in which crude nervous i to the surface of the brain Further, that the generation of emotions, which differs in so many respects from that of ideas, is especially connected with these centres as distinguished fro above the facts:

1st The nervous masses in question are well developed in anians of intellection, are comparatively rudimentary; and in these sa exists, the instincts and feelings attain individuality and intensity

2d The emotions stand in much closer relation to sensation and ht The latter, indeed, necessitate immobility, and, if sufficiently intense, diminish the power of sensation; they seeans unconnected with motility or sensibility On the contrary, movements of some kind are the first result of eesture, and these increase in violence with the intensity of the feeling A powerful eht, may, it is true, annihilate or transform sensation; but this is explicable by the fact that the strongest emotions are excited by ideas Hence, on the hypothesis, the i doards to the emotional centres from the cerebral he upwards froous to that observed in opposing waves of sound But as the direction of the i emotion coincides with that of the motor impulses, the latter would not be counteracted, but reinforced

3d Conversely, sensations of various kinds, transmitted to these centres froenerating oremotional conditions--often, indeed, much more so The hypochondria of the ancients, the dyspeptic melancholia of the moderns, the infinite varieties of hysterical sensibility, are all well-known illustrations of this undisputed fact The elastic consciousness of well-being that euished from the timid apprehensiveness that constantly depresses the powers of others, is connected, not with any view of external conditions appreciable by the intellect, but with a vast ue bodily sensations, of which each alone fails to make a distinct impression upon consciousness

4th An impression made on one part of the sympathetic systelionic masses of the visceral plexuses, already described Hence the rapid effect of astric response to the e in the solar plexus lying behind the stomach In a precisely sianglionic nerves of the kidneys, uterus, and ovaries, leading to the flow of urine that ter menstruation, by contraction of uterine blood vessels, or causing an excess of e, fro the menstrual crisis None of these effects are observed after a si, unattended by emotion

5th Probably on account of such an influence upon the vaso-motor nerves, the blood vessels, and, consequently, the processes of nutrition, the evolution of eue than is that of thought The fatigue that ed intellectual operation is, moreover, distinctly localized in the head, and exists in various degrees, from simple inability for further attention, to decided sensation of weariness, or even pain But the fatigue experienced after excessive e character and accompanied by tears (which ieneralized all over the body, and is, moreover, very much more often followed by headache, or by syestion or ane, except in persons morbidly predisposed When nervous exhaustion is observed after prolonged mental effort, one of two other conditions, or both, has nearly always co-existed, namely, deficiency of physical exercise, or presence of active e anxieties In a few cases, the mental effort itself, by the afflux of blood determined to the brain, or the excessive activity imposed upon its elements, becomes an efficient cause of disease But in these cases there is either an original ianization of the nerve tissues, or the mental effort has been of that exceptionally intense nature of which none but a few minds are capable

Finally, in these cases, the resulting disease is seated in the brain or spinal colureat importance for our purpose; for it tends to show that diseases produced elsewhere within the range of the ganglionic systee, that we are especially considering--ht

Froain inferred, first, that the radical difference which exists between the cerebral operations that result in thought, and those that accompany the evolution of emotion, probably depends upon the fact, that in the former central nervous action remains more or less localized on the surface of the cerebral he at the base of the brain, and hence nearer the vaso-motor centre, are called into play; second, that the effects of such action are hout the nervous syste the dilatation of the blood-vessels in the manner described, exhaust the central nervous system in a twofold manner, by a disturbance of its circulation, and by a direct depression of its nutrition, when the erate the nutrition elsewhere

Repeated excitement and consecutive paralysis of the vaso-motor nerves, therefore, serve as theoff the force of the cerebro-spinal nervous system And it has been seen, that a depression of its power is followed by an exaggerated and irregular activity of the ganglionic system, to which are due most of the phenomena observed in hysteria and in ordinarily nervous women These are infrom so-called nervous debility, for the reason, that in thelionic systeularities of action therefore less marked, when the control exercised by the cerebro-spinal system has been diminished If the vaso-lia at the base are called into activity, and if their activity coincides with ean is much more remote, in the cerebral heht, should most easily influence the vaso-motor centre, and be followed by peculiar lionic system and of the circulation This supposition is confirmed by the occurrence of many vaso-motor phenomena that commonly follow eht It is not, therefore, stis, that can be shown froical data to have an injurious effect upon the vaso-lionic nerves of the ovaries, or, in other words, can be concerned in the production of uterine haee To be just, however, it must be adht be affirmed: first, that in women communication of impressions between different parts of the nervous system was so rapid, that the limitation of activity to a particular part of the brain was iht and emotion was effaced, because any action set up at the surface of the cerebral hemispheres, invariably called the eht be said, that the original organization of the cerebral tissues in woht amount of activity was sufficient to exhaust thee by the mechanism previously described

Neither of these assertions is made by Dr Clarke, but it is certain that one or both of thee number of women To these, however, severe intellectual exertion would be injurious, not only if perfor the week of menstruation, but if perfor the inter-menstrual period, is quite as likely to be followed by pain or excessive haee at the next menstruation, as if it had been sustained at the critical epoch itself Nature generally provides for a portion of this contingency, by rendering such women little capable of h they be kept in the most complete intellectual quiescence, the condition of these unfortunates is scarcely improved Withdrawn from the serene and powerful itations of their ganglionic nerves; i in thee their nervous systeanizations, are co to theirs; health, indeed, is only possible to them while they may be sheltered from exposure, saved from exertion, and carefully screened froested by Dr Clarke for enabling young girls to master Latin and Greek without sacrifice of their health, seeroup of supposed causes

In the cases related by Dr Clarke, there is nothing to show that thethe week ofthe three weeks that preceded it Nor that even then, the true cause of disease was to be found in the intellectual exertion ofthe school text-books, rather than in the , or the close confineed school hours, and unhealthy sedentary habits out of school

The complexity of causation in such instancescase, that I select on account of its great reseirl of sixteen consulted e so excessive as to induce co upon syncope

She hadthe first, in quite a nor the second, had becoic accidents, since residence at boarding-school It would have been easy to decide that the disturbance was directly due to the severity of the ime_ of the school But on further inquiry it appeared: first, that the ia, and it is well known that this often occurs exclusively as the result of hereditary predisposition Second, that just before the entrance to school, and the disturbance ofin a malarial district, and had suffered froain a frequent cause of ia

Third, that the studies pursued at school were unusually rudiirl of sixteen, and indeed, below the natural capacity of her intelligence, had this been properly trained But the hours of study were so ill-arranged, that the pupils were kept over their books, or at the piano, nearly all day, and even in the intervals allowed for recreation, no exercise was enforced It was therefore frequently neglected, and the girl, with hereditary predisposition to ia, increased by malarial infection, and also by certain rheumatic tendencies, was allowed to expend upon elementary text-books an ay, that would have been deemed excessive for the most valuable intellectual pursuits

All physicians are aware of the frequent dependence of enital The existence of anemia, or of an imperfect elaboration of the blood and vascular system, previous to the occurrence of the first menstruation, is a possible condition of menstrual disorder that must always be very carefully elined It is, moreover, extremely frequent Others exist, but are es, with or without true hemophilia[45]

With such causes (anemia, rheumatism, malarial infection, hereditary predisposition), the observance of rest during the iienic If the menstrual crisis finds the uterine blood-vessels already deprived of tonicity through nervous exhaustion or other cause, haee is as likely to occur as if that tonicity were only exhausted at the epoch of menstruation In the cases described by Dr Clarke, the cure was effected, when at all, not by an intermittence of study, which does not seeether with that of all the conditions by which it was accoain, therefore, it may be said, that wherever such intermittence is not superfluous, it would be inadequate for the purpose for which it is designed

But this conclusion may seem to be much irls, reeable than that formulated by Dr Clarke We firreeable when it is really understood in all its bearings and all its consequences, and conversely, that any proposition framed with a view to supposed desirableness rather than veracity, is almost certain to lead in the end to consequences quite undesirable We will not, therefore, try to decide whether it reeable to believe that the health of adolescent girls requires general and pered by confining them to a sofa and a novel for one week out of every four; to believe that a certain number of women, as of men, are always unfit for intellectual exertion, or that all wo one quarter of their lives at times unknown to outsiders, and which, therefore, may be at any time; to believe that the increased delicacy of women in civilized societies depends on a cultivated predolionic nervous system and emotional functions, or on the excessive stimulus of the cerebro-spinal system and on intellectual cultivation

More useful than such discussion is the consideration of the ested by Dr Clarke in the third proposition we have forular inter to Nature herone week out of four” Theconsiderations would be more complex, but, we think, at once more effectual and less inconvenient Itformula: ”Secure the predominance of the cerebro-spinal systelionic” Since the activity of the cerebro-spinal systehly[46] divided into a twofold direction, intellectual and muscular, this predominance is to be secured by assiduous cultivation of the intellect as compared with the emotions, and of the muscles of the limbs as compared with the muscular fibre of the blood-vessels In other words, the evil effects of school competition, and of the emotional exciteer, wider, slower, and more complete intellectual education than at present falls to the lot of either boys or girls And the dangers incident to the developlionic nervous systeular circulation, vaso-motor spasm and paralysis, are to be averted by systematic physical exercise, that shall stimulate the spinal nerves, quicken the external circulation, and favor the development of muscles at the moment that their activity threatens to be overpowered

The effect of syste on the spinal nervous system, and on the bones and h described Far less attention has been given to the equally positive development that can be secured for the brain, under the influence of prolonged and systematic exercise of its functions An immense increase of functional capacity is possible, even without marked anatomical alteration; but even this is observed under circumstances that seem to indicate that it is rather the effect than the cause of changes in function Retzius (Muller's Archives, 1845, p 89[47]) observes that the female cranium varies in size her and eneralthe peasants, a fact which probably depends on the different mode of life and occupation The skull of the Norway fe as that of the ous observation in regard to the crania of different races, the differences between the sexes being more marked in proportion to the civilization of the race--that is, to the degree of specialization of education, andtable:

CRANIAL CAPACITY

WOMAN MAN